Posts by Robin Hoffmann

Communication is essential between the director/producer and the film composer and bad communication often leads to misunderstandings and conflicts. As a director/producer, you should have a rather clear vision about what you want the music to do. It is NOT the most comfortable situation for a composer when he/she’s been told “Well, I don’t know, just do your thing.” and getting complete artistic freedom over the music. This puts one rather in the situation of sitting in front of a white blank canvas, wondering about what to put there. On the other hand, it feels very uncomfortable as well for a composer to constantly feeling pushed by an overly picky director/producer who request for things that they not neccessarily have a full...

The function of music in the movies is a very wide field. Music can serve several purposes that are either important on the emotional side of the movie or help/enhance the storytelling. It is not only helpful but essential for any director/producer to keep the music in mind when planning/shooting the movie. For example collages that practically don’t work at all without film music can have a fantastic effect later with the appropriate music. You can extend every function below by clicking on the arrow in order to read a description of this function. The following list tries to be a comprehensive overview about possible functions of film music in a movie. Some functions overlap sometimes or some music serves several functions at other times. 1....

The way a movie is released heavily influences not only its production but also the film music. There needs to be a clear understanding of what the primary release of the movie is going to be as there are still quite different ways of perceiving a movie depending on whether you watch it in a big cinema, in a dark enclosed space with dozens of other people, at home on your television while cooking dinner or in front of your computer while surfing facebook in another window. Of course the platform everybody wishes for is the cinematic release but only few movies make it there. However, when a movie is set for release in a cinema, the composer will do a few things that work specifically for cinematic releases: - the use of the full dynamic range from the softest...

The so-called spotting session is the meeting between director and composer where both watch the movie together. Usually, this is a great chance to find a concept and ideas for the film music in a mutual way and to avoid any misunderstandings in the actual working process. You as the director should take the lead in this. Also, often the composer gets to see the fine cut of the movie for the first time in this situation so it is also a great chance for you to get a bit of first reaction feedback by someone who isn’t biased or work-blind regarding the movie yet. If there are shots still missing or essential cgi elements of the images are not visible yet, you should of course explain in these scene what will be seen there when the movie is done. The most...

Having a basic idea of what your movie needs musically is a very important thing when you enter the dialogue with the composer. There is that common misconception between directors that composers are happy when you just let them do their thing without giving much directions. However rather the opposite is the case. In such situations your composer gets thrown into cold water. Many movies offer the possibility to approach them musically in very different ways and for the composer it feels very uncomfortable to be shooting in the dark to see whether one might find something that you like. Basically, you should think about the following things before you meet up with a composer. 1. What style of music do you want? This means not only in the big scale of...